


perspective

by kareofbears



Series: five days, five prompts 2020 [3]
Category: Persona 5
Genre: Gen, Introspection, an alex special
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-12
Updated: 2020-12-12
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:47:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28024188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kareofbears/pseuds/kareofbears
Summary: Akechi's words are flying out of his mouth now, each syllable nearly tripping over each other in their haste to make themselves known. “And that time I trapped your leader in an underground interrogation room to kill him? That was a good one. How about the dozens of families affected by the mental shutdowns? Or that time I fought my damnest to kill you all in Shido’s Palace? Or—”“I remember it,” Haru says softly. “All of it.”
Relationships: Akechi Goro & Okumura Haru
Series: five days, five prompts 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2046812
Comments: 1
Kudos: 26





	perspective

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by grow as we go by ben platt

“I didn’t ask you to do that.” 

Haru stops when she hears Akechi’s quiet voice, letting the rest of the Thieves walk past her in Shibuya station. It’s late enough that there are only a few midnight workers hustling to get to their night shifts, heads down and coats tight around them, barely glancing at a group of exhausted teenagers appearing out of midair. 

Akira throws her back a look, eyes flashing warning signals. She nods. It’s fine. 

Haru waits until they’ve headed down the escalators before turning to face Akechi. “You didn’t.”

“I didn’t,” he repeats. “And yet, you did it.”

“And I’d do it again.”

The trains a floor below seemed to hush as they stare each other down—her smiling and his expression blank. 

“I’m not him, Okumura. The mission can still go on if I’m down—”

“This isn’t about the mission, Akechi-kun.” Her voice was harder than usual. “I would have done it for Akira, yes. But I also would have done it for Futaba-chan. Ryuji-kun. I would have done it for anyone on the team.” 

“But I wouldn’t have done it for any of you.” He readjusts his gloves passively, casually. “If a Shadow was behind you, your back exposed, and a bless attack strong enough to fry you dead was coming towards you a hundred miles an hour, I would have let my attention fall elsewhere. I would have looked the other way.”

“I know that.”

“I killed your dad, did you forget?”

As if there’d ever be a morning where she wakes up and doesn’t repeat that fact over and over again until she’s forced to get up for the day. “No.” 

“And Sakura’s mother,” he says, voice brisk. “Did you forget that part?”

“No,” Haru mutters. “I didn’t.”

His words are flying out of his mouth now, each syllable nearly tripping over each other in their haste to make themselves known. “And that time I trapped your leader in an underground interrogation room to kill him? That was a good one. How about the dozens of families affected by the mental shutdowns? Or that time I fought my damnest to kill you all in Shido’s Palace? Or—”

“I remember it,” she says softly. “All of it.”

Akechi’s cool expression falls; in it’s place, something akin to confusion. Lost. A genuine look of incomprehension. “Then why did you do it?”

“Why did I save your life?” 

He nods, and she feels a pang of something, deep in her chest. It feels awfully close to pity. Haru glances around the station to make sure it was still empty, before saying:

“I hate you.”

“I’m aware.”

“I thought I wanted you dead for a long time, Akechi Goro.” It feels strange saying it out loud after countless times of wishing, _pleading_ in her head. “I really, really did.” 

“I understand,” he says simply. If anything else, that was one thing she knew they _did_ have in common—the prayer of revenge. “After all that I’ve done, it only makes sense.”

“Right?” she can’t help but smile, just a little. Odd, being validated by the person you hate the most. 

“But I saw it. It was inevitable. If I hadn’t done anything—” her smile slips from her features as she remembers it. The moist yet scorching scent of Mementos. The sound of trains on their tracks and their never-ending scheduled journeys. A quiet Shadow within a deafening battle. Akechi’s bloodlust eyes focused, always focused, on the target in front of him. Used to never having someone watching his back. “In that moment…I don’t know.” 

Was it a compulsion? A need to save people the way Akira does? “I couldn’t let anything happen to you. I couldn’t let you die, no matter how much I wanted you to.” 

A beat passes. She’s gotten good at reading the poker faces that come with dealing in business, the hard expressions with cracks that tell her everything she needs—a slight frown, the gnawing of the lip, the nervous ticks that everyone has.

Despite this, Akechi’s expression remains unreadable. “I didn’t want you to do that.” 

She winces. It’s not a surprise, but it still makes her heart sink to hear it. Was it because it was her who did it? Or any of the Thieves? Or was it something that she’d be better off not knowing about?  


“It doesn’t matter whether or not you wanted it,” is what Haru says instead. “I already saved your life. It’s done. I’ve already done it.” 

When he doesn’t answer, she pulls back her sleeve. “It’s getting late. I should go. We have an exam next week, so I should study for that, I think. I’ve never been good at chemistry.” 

She walks away, but before she can get very far, a voice calls out, almost desperately. 

“Now what?”

Haru turns, and Akechi stands there, an arm outstretched towards her. “What am I supposed to do now?”

It’s strange. The way his shoulders droop like he’s burdened with stones, his lips tilted downwards, eyebrows scrunched and eyes wide yet doubtful—a decade of begging for help, for someone to notice, and being shot down every single time without fail.

It’s strange, because this is the expression she saw in the mirror before she found the friends she had now. 

She smiles, despite the way her chest constricts. “If you want my honest advice, Akechi-kun, you grow. Heal. You don’t have to save anyone’s life, but it might help.” She rocks on her heels. “It doesn’t have to be here. It doesn’t have to be with us. But it has to happen.” 

Haru turns back. “If you do that, it’ll make sense why I did it. Trust me, once you break out of what you think the whole world is made of, it gets better.” 

Walking towards the escalators, she blinks as she sees everyone waiting at the bottom, waiting for her. 

A laugh slips from her lips, remembering how used she was to an empty house waiting for her. 

It gets better.

**Author's Note:**

> im glad i finally had a chance to write these two, despite how short this fic is. maybe ill do a longer one someday, who knows. if you have a prompt for these fics, send me an ask on my tumblr :)
> 
> [my tumblr](https://kareofbears.tumblr.com)


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